


Visitor

by phoenixnz



Series: Nightwing Chronicles [30]
Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Smallville
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 15:22:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8495068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixnz/pseuds/phoenixnz
Summary: A visitor has Bruce worried about Lex. He begins doing some digging





	

“Master Wayne, you have a visitor,” Alfred announced.

Frowning, Bruce looked up from his laptop. For the past few weeks, he’d been researching various crime fighting methods and trying to figure out how he could protect himself when out on patrol. He’d been thinking about things Lex had discussed with him on his brief visit to Smallville a month earlier.

Lex and Clark were back at Princeton for their final semester. As much as he missed them, he knew he would have to stay another year at college, and the last thing he wanted was to be left behind while his friends made their own way in the world. 

Lex was also helping Clark research his own origins. The pair were following guidelines given by Jor-El, Clark’s biological father. The artificial intelligence, which had apparently been created to guide Clark as he grew up, had explained there were three crystals hidden around the world. The Kryptonians, for that was apparently where Clark was from, had feared the crystals would fall into the wrong hands. Especially human hands. 

The Kryptonians, an advanced race, had possessed the knowledge and the ability to time travel. Jor-El had explained that an emissary from their world had travelled to Earth’s distant past, creating the three crystals out of the Crystal of Knowledge, and hidden them in three separate locations, leaving clues as to their whereabouts. Clark had asked the A.I. what was so important about the crystal, to be informed that it contained a library of sorts, compiling all the knowledge of the worlds in the twenty-eight known galaxies. 

The problem was, however, that the Kryptonians had been embroiled in a civil war against a faction called Black Zero. The faction had been trying to get its hands on the crystal repository, planning on using the knowledge contained to invade planets like Earth. 

Jor-El had also told Clark that he was now the guardian of all this knowledge, or he would be once he joined the crystals. It was just a matter now of finding them. Bruce had been working on that as well, using contacts he’d met in Asia to get the word out. 

Jor-El had stressed the need to ensure the crystals did not fall into human hands. Clark had reported his birth father had told him it was of vital importance, realising that, as impassive as the artificial intelligence was, there was an underlying anxiety. 

Bruce knew the fears were not unfounded. Who knew what human beings were capable of if they had that much knowledge, that much power. He’d been pondering the situation when Alfred had announced the visitor.

He hadn’t been expecting anyone to call at the manor. Lieutenant Gordon had visited shortly after his return from Bhutan, when he’d still been recovering from the pneumonia. He knew the officer was busy trying to weed out corruption within his own police force and it was not an easy task. 

As he turned to greet the visitor, Bruce tried to keep his expression neutral. 

Lionel Luthor smiled at him.

“Good afternoon, Bruce.”

“Mr Luthor,” he said coolly.

“I would have thought you would have returned to Princeton.”

Bruce shrugged. “I decided there was little point in going back. Especially since I’ve already inherited Wayne Enterprises.” He had officially inherited the company when he’d graduated high school, but Alfred had advised him to finish college before taking up his role in the company. 

Lionel scratched at his upper lip.

“I see. Are you planning on running the company?”

“Well, why not?” he said smoothly. 

“You’re hardly qualified.”

“I’m a Wayne,” he replied.

Through discussions with Lex and Clark, he’d decided a good cover would be to pretend he was nothing but a spoilt rich kid who knew nothing about running a company and cared little for the responsibility. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Lex had helped him with some research into his own company and he’d learnt a few things which were of concern. 

“Be that as it may,” Lionel told him, “considering your reputation, Bruce, I would think your company would be bankrupt within a year under your leadership.”

Bruce smiled thinly.

“Is there a point to this, Lionel?”

Considering the run-in he and Lex had had with the man after they’d broken in to Cadmus Labs a month earlier, he supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised at the visit. Lionel was clearly trying to assess just how strong Bruce’s hold over Lex was. 

“I’m rather concerned about my son,” he said, crossing the floor to look at a bust of Bruce’s grandfather. “It would seem he is ignoring my edict to study business and is fully intent on pursuing the sciences. I would hate to think you were influencing him unduly.”

“Lex is mature enough to make up his own mind,” Bruce pointed out. 

“Oh, I’m sure he is.” Lionel turned and looked at him, his eyes cold as his gaze swept over Bruce. “Still, it does seem to me that Lex is being encouraged in, how shall I put this delicately, frivolous pursuits of which I do not approve.”

“Frivolous?” Bruce raised an eyebrow at the man. “I hardly think the sciences are frivolous.”

“My son has a destiny, Bruce. To take his place at my side. To lead Luthorcorp into the next generation.”

Bruce grinned sardonically.

“You make it sound like he’s the Second Coming.” 

Lionel glared at him, clearly not appreciating the analogy. 

“I had hoped this would be a civil conversation, Bruce, but I can see I’m wasting my breath. Allow me to be blunt. Stay away from my son. If you continue to interfere with his destiny there will be … consequences.”

Bruce glared coldly at the older man. 

“Are you threatening me, Luthor?” he asked. 

“Just warning you.”

“Lex makes his own choices.”

Lionel huffed. “I allowed his little dalliances with you. I have even tolerated his supposed friendship with the Kent boy, but this ends now!”

The man’s message was quite clear. He was obviously prepared to go to any lengths to ensure Lex followed the path he’d chosen for his son, not the path Lex wanted to follow. Even if that meant physical harm.

“Get out,” Bruce said quietly, his tone one of cold fury. “Get out of my house. Get out of Gotham! You are not welcome here.”

Lionel looked at him with a smug smile, having made his point. Bruce stood still, barely able to control his anger, his hands curled into fists. He dearly wanted to strike the older man, but knew this was exactly what Lionel was expecting. He took deep breaths, letting them out slowly, waiting for the elder Luthor to leave.

As soon as Lionel was gone, Bruce left the room, changing into gym gear and taking out his anger on the punching bag. 

Working out helped him get a handle on his emotions, so by the time Alfred called him down for dinner he was feeling much easier. 

“What did Mister Luthor want?” Alfred asked, his tone not in the least respectful toward the man.

“The usual. You know, the whole mine is bigger than yours scenario.”

“Hmph,” the older man replied. “Lionel Luthor is nothing more than a thug.”

Bruce looked at his guardian. “You know this for a fact?” he asked. 

As far as he knew, Lionel Luthor was descended from Scottish nobility. According to the business mogul’s bio, his grandfather had been a Laird, or an owner of a large Scottish estate. 

“If that man is of noble birth, then I shall be a monkey’s uncle,” Alfred replied. 

“I wonder,” Bruce mused. “Do you think you could do a little digging with your old service buddies?”

“Consider it done, Master Bruce.”

He called Clark and Lex later that evening, telling them about the visit. 

“I know I said you should work for your father a year, Lex, but screw him. He needs to learn that he doesn’t control your destiny.”

“He could still cut me off without a cent,” Lex replied.

“What does that matter? I’d rather be a pauper than under the thumb of someone like him. Anyway, if Alfred’s right, we might have something we can use.”

“You’re not suggesting blackmail or anything, are you?” Clark asked, always the one to remind them to take the moral high ground. 

“That depends on what we find,” Bruce told him. “Relax Clark. I’m not about to stoop to his level. But I do think we should fight fire with fire. Lionel may think he can force us apart with threats, so I think it’s time we hit the man where it hurts.”

He told them of Alfred’s own thoughts on the matter.

“You really think they’re going to find something?” Lex asked.

“Who knows what they’ll find?” Bruce replied.

He’d already started doing his own research on Lionel’s bio. The information the older man published in the company prospectus just didn’t ring true. Everyone at Excelsior had known that the Luthors hadn’t come from money. It was often suggested in Bruce’s particular social circle that the more pretentious the man, the least chance they had of being ‘old money’. It was also one of the main reasons Lex had been bullied at school. 

Alfred reported to him several days later, placing a file on his desk. Bruce looked at him, then looked at the file, opening the cover and skimming through the contents. He smirked at his guardian. So much for being descended from a Scottish laird, he thought. 

Alfred had been right. Lionel had been no more than a thug. His father had been a petty criminal, arrested several times for burglary and armed robbery. Lachlan and Eliza Luthor had died in a tenement fire when Lionel had been eighteen. If an explosion that had taken out an entire building could be called a fire, Bruce thought. 

This required further digging, he realised.


End file.
